I was a heavy lean towards no until I found out that one of the rabbits died last night. The family that has them has a 5 year old girl who, I guess you could say, is too rough or mean to the rabbits, so they want to get rid of them so they won’t get injured.
In the meantime, they have them in an outdoor pen and the bottom of the pen collapsed, killing one of them. The other seems seems to have survived and is doing fine right now.
I sort of agree the kids might be a bit too young, but the 6 year old seems more than ready to take on some responsibility like this and she really wants the rabbit. The younger kids are not all that interested and I wouldn’t trust them around the rabbit alone, but supervised they would be fine. We recently had a dog that died from extreme old age and all the kids were all very gentle with him.
I guess I’ll have to decide this weekend and I’m now leaning towards a yes since it is only 1, and this one seems to be on borrowed time where it is now. My friends are very nice and would not intentionally do any harm to the rabbits, but I think they are getting desperate to give it away.
So you’re going to import a previously mishandled probably psychotic rabbit into your family wherein you agree that 2 kids of 3 are the wrong ages to interact with rabbits.
What are you thinking? You’re not helping yourself. You’re not helping your family. You’re not helping the rabbit; merely changing who torments it.
So why are you doing this? If merely to help your friend, you’d do better to help your friend by picking up the rabbit & driving directly to the humane society & dropping it off for adoption or euthanasia.
I only said that I wouldnt leave the younger kids alone with the rabbit. Supervised, I am sure they will be extremely gentle, as they were with my dog, who was sick at the end of his life and needed to be treated gently.
if you decide yes - please don’t let any of your kids pick up the rabbit - not even the 6yr old. Disaster would only follow.
some info:
and of course http://rabbit.org/ (warning though: a lot of people who are involved with hrs - particularly their Facebook group are rabid vegan activists who bite without provocation)
sadly in Australia we do not have access to the myxomatosis vaccine so we have to be very careful about keeping bunnies inside and protected from mosquitos
Sorry gotta disagree - rabbits are NOT low maintenance. They are fragile, intelligent, have complex dietary needs and can become ill and die in very short periods of time (ie GI Stasis in your rabbit, Identify and try to avoid it)
Both males and females need to be desexed as this helps with aggression, reproductive cancers, smells and um…humping (which both males and females do). Bonded animals can be kept in the same pen. Alfalfa is fine for young rabbits but should only be a treat (as in pellets 1 teaspoon per day though my bunny gets less than this) for older bunnies. Speaking of treats the one teaspoon per day could include a small piece of apple, sultanas, banana (rabbit crack) etc. There are plenty of lists of rabbit safe foods and treats on the web.
When I had a houseabbit everything within 12" of the floor had teethmarks in it. My iron cord has 6 repairs in it, the vacuum had 3. Every cord in the house will need to be shielded. If you have bookcases, empty out the bottom shelves or your library will have the corners chewed off.
My bunny really wanted to graze and did so on the carpet (which eventually killed him through an intestinal blockage). Slowly the carpet gained bare areas as he tugged the carpet fibers loose. All the anti-chew stuff out there I found was bitter apple flavor. Doesn’t work on herbivores. I think all I did was add seasoning.
My bun peed a lot until I gave him lots of fresh veggies along with his pellets and hay. Then it tapered down, but I would still change his litter box daily. His urine had a strong ammonia smell. Not horrible, but you want to keep the box clean.
Loved him lots, but not as cuddly as a cat or dog. A rabbit definitely takes some work.
And if a rabbit is for kids, you need to understand bunny teeth are sharp and will easily penetrate skin when they chomp. I’m not certain 6, 4, and 1 are a good age range for a rabbit.
Rabbits are great pets. They are NOT APPROPRIATE for children, they are too fragile and children are too unpredictable. They are NOT low maintenance. They have specific dietary requirements and need as much attention and exercise and vet care as a dog or cat. They are not temporary pets like goldfish, they can live up to 10 or 12 years and require a long-term commitment. They do not need to live outside as they are prey animals and being exposed to birds or other wildlife is extremely stressful for them. Also they are at risk of heat stroke in temperatures over 80F. They need to be brushed daily because they can die from hairballs and–get this–carrots are too sugary for them and should not be a main part of their diet. They can and will chew on everything, including electrical cords and your clothing, books and fingers. There are so very many misconceptions about rabbits floating around that I can’t begin to cover them all.
Your situation does not sound acceptable for a pet rabbit.
I love rabbits in general and I have had many of them throughout my life but they have usually ended in heartbreak. They are beautiful and some of them are really sweet but they are not low maintenance. At the very least, you are always worried about their safety. Many other animals want to kill and eat them and they evolved to be skittish to counteract that.
Despite my best efforts, almost all of mine got killed by some other animal because they are good about escaping for short periods and that is sometimes all it takes. I had a house rabbit for 3 years named Bianca. She was really sweet and litter box trained but she also loved to chew like all rabbits do. I was good about rabbit proofing the property for electrical cords but it was impossible to do for landline phone cords. Every couple of weeks, I would come home and my phone would be dead because she chewed through the cord.
Rabbit urine is also extremely concentrated and intense. It smells like ammonia cleaner because it isn’t far from it chemically speaking. They are vegetarians and poop like no tomorrow. The pellets themselves are usually dry and inoffensive when they are fresh but they absolutely reek in an eye burning way if you allow them to accumulate in one spot and also let them pee on the pile. That stuff is so strong that you can’t even use it as plant fertilizer most of the time without greatly diluting it with other organic material. It will kill many plants within days if you just dump a bunch of raw rabbit droppings in one place. That presents a problem because you will have a bunch of it that you will need to get rid of.
I have a house chinchilla now which I think is much better than any rabbit I ever had. They don’t smell at all, they are generally low maintenance and they can be extremely sweet and smart although personalities differ greatly among individuals. A chinchilla is like a cross between a perpetual bunny and a squirrel. They bond strongly with their owners, recognize specific people and are generally very sweet and social. The only problems that I know of with chinchillas is that they live for an unusually long time - even longer than dogs and most cats so it is a long-term commitment. They are also much more expensive initially than a typical rabbit although still not very expensive <$200 for a good chinchilla plus a couple of hundred more for a large cage and other setup.
However, I still wouldn’t recommend a chinchilla or a rabbit for any house that has very young children in it even though some people do it. Rabbits can injure an adult very quickly because their back legs are strong and they have sharp nails. If one panics in your arms, you are going to be shredded and bleeding in less than two seconds and the rabbit isn’t going to be happy about the situation either. Those situations are much worse when you have a three year old that doesn’t know to let go and decides to squeeze when the rabbit is determined to run away at all costs. Chinchillas are much smaller and can’t hurt you too much but small children can hurt them very easily.
I would put the minimum age at rabbit or chinchilla ownership in the 6 - 7 year old range including the youngest member of the household. Anything younger than that isn’t fair or safe to either the kids or the pet.
My sole experience with sharing a house with a rabbit was 30+ years ago. Housemate had adopted a a bunny and would let it roam around his part of the house. I overheard him on the phone and it went like this:
“blah blah blah ??? WHAT??? DAMMIT!!!”.
Bunny had just chewed through the phone wire, interrupting his conversation.
While the bunny wasn’t vicious, nor did he LIKE to be held. I’d hold him, and he’d just lie in my arms quivering, beaming “please don’t eat me” thoughts. As a cat person (though cat-less at the time), I found this disconcerting - I was used to pets that enjoyed being touched and held.
One piece of advice re vet care: if you can, find a vet that specializes in “exotics”. Your average cat / dog vet won’t necessarily have the skills to deal with anything out of the ordinary with a bunny.
Something to know is that Thumper is fictional, but Bugs is not. Unnatural Velvet liked playing with Boots the Cat–who knew that rabbits and cats play the same way? They’d get in a clinch with their front paws while “trying” to disembowel each other with their hind feet. You could tell they were playing because neither was actually hurt, but they looked like they were clawing each other apart. An appalling sight, and not one for children.
This. You can train them to defecate/urinate in a box of some kind, but wherever you have that box it will stink up the whole area. It’s not unlike when you’re at the zoo looking at the smellier herbivores, IME usually camels, gazelles, and similar. Oddly it seemed to be with these small-to-medium sized animals that I’ve noticed it, and not the largest ones like elephants and rhinoceroses.
Do a little googling on how bunnies are so often given to little kids at Easter, but then need to be returned or rehomed.
The other seems seems to have survived and is doing fine right now.
